’Bows salvage a split

Jeff Van Doornum scored two runs and five Rainbows pitchers combined on a four-hitter as Hawaii earned a split of yesterday's Western Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader against New Mexico State with a 5-1 victory in the series finale.

NMSU

9-1

Hawaii

3-5

NEXT UP
vs. Nevada on Friday

The win was Mike Trapasso's 200th as Rainbows coach.

Joseph Scaperotta hit a three-run home run and Chris Auten homered and drove in two runs as the Aggies took the first game 9-3.

Hawaii (16-21) won its second consecutive WAC series and remained at .500 in conference play at 8-8. New Mexico State (16-19, 5-7 WAC) is still a half-game behind the 'Bows.

Cory Kahn earned the win in Game 2 in relief of starter Alex Bates, who pitched for the first time this season. Josh Slaats fell to 0-4 after losing the opener.

Hawaii's poor performances in doubleheaders continued until a quintet of young pitchers helped the Rainbows slow down one of the best hitting teams in the country.

Five different Rainbows held a New Mexico State team, which entered the series fourth in the country in scoring, to one run and four hits as Hawaii earned a split of yesterday's doubleheader with a 5-1 victory in front of 2,195 fans at Les Murakami Stadium.

Hawaii is 6-2 in single-day games in the Western Athletic Conference, but were 1-6 in doubleheaders going into yesterday's finale after Joseph Scaperotta's three-run homer helped the Aggies win the opener 9-3.

"(The second game) was huge because it allowed us to win the series, but more importantly -- and we always focus on it but I really believe it -- is just playing well," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "That first game, we didn't play well at all. We made a couple stupid errors that cost us the game."

Unlike its two previous four-game series at home in which Hawaii won the first two only to lose the third, the Rainbows were able to battle back and win the series.

Alex Bates, hampered by a shoulder injury all season, made his first appearance of the season to start the second game. He teamed with Cory Kahn and freshmen Alex Capaul and Sam Spangler to hold the Aggies to one run over eight innings before Jayson Kramer retired the side in the ninth to clinch Hawaii's second consecutive series win.

"We used a lot of guys and tried to make sure they couldn't make adjustments or expose our pitchers' weaknesses," Trapasso said. "We didn't let them face our pitchers more than once although Cory (Kahn) went about twice through the lineup and did a great job."

Kahn allowed one hit and one walk and didn't give up a run in 3 1/3 innings in relief of Bates, who pitched two scoreless innings.

Kahn allowed a walk and a single in the fifth, but pitched his way out of the inning to earn his second win of the season.

"I was fortunate enough to get in right after Bates and keep the ball rolling and keep my team in it," Kahn said.

Hawaii scored two runs and sent eight batters to the plate in the second inning without getting a hit. Jeff Van Doornum reached on a throwing error by the third baseman and scored on an RBI ground out by Greg Garcia. Kevin Macdonald walked with nobody out and wound up scoring on Tyler Sturdevant's second wild pitch of the inning.

"We put the ball in play and let them make mistakes," Van Doornum said. "That's been the story the whole series."

Hawaii led 3-0 when Scaperotta brought in Matt Lopez with a two-out single in the eighth. The Rainbows responded with two insurance runs in the bottom of the inning as Matt Roquemore's two-out single scored Vinnie Catricala from third. Brandon Haislet also scored on the play after the ball went under the glove of right-fielder Franky Busani and rolled all the way to the wall.

"The couple runs there at the end really helped," Trapasso said. "I think it relaxed Kramer to go out there in the ninth and just throw strikes."

Scaperotta's only hit in the first game was a three-run bomb over the back fence in right field after the Rainbows had pulled to within three runs.

Van Doornum hit a two-run double in the sixth to make it 6-3 after the Aggies jumped out to a five-run lead. Hawaii put runners on first and second with nobody out in the seventh, but couldn't scratch across any runs.

Scaperotta then ended any thoughts of a comeback with his league-leading 13th homer of the season off of Josh Schneider.

Schneider pitched 5 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and didn't have his best stuff, but was able to eat up innings that wound up paying dividends in the second game.

"He didn't throw well, but the fact that he ate some innings I think contributed to the nightcap win because it allowed us to have some guys available," Trapasso said.

Josh Slaats lasted just 2 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on four hits to take the loss and drop to 0-4 for the season.

Hawaii continues its homestand Friday when it begins a four-game series against Nevada.